And the Sweetest of Words
by The Black Sun's Daughter
Summary: Jacob Stone has two soulmates, he's in so much trouble it isn't even funny, and he doesn't know how to do this. Sometimes he thinks it might be easier staying on the oilrig. (Soulmates AU, companion to "Loving Words" and "Not-So-Simple Words")


**A/N: dear God, I am on fire today! Next to come will be Flynn and Eve's take on their own Words. :)**

* * *

When Jake Stone's Words appear on his wrist, he knows that he's in so much trouble it isn't even funny. He has two Words – two soulmates – and one of them is a man.

 _Zeke_ and _Prodigy_.

He doesn't have a problem with homosexuality. It's the 21st century, people have a right to choose how they want to live, so hey, to each their own. But his old man does. The folks in church do.

Jake's heard the sermon enough times that he already knows that if someone finds out that he has two soulmates and one (perhaps both, _Prodigy_ could be either) then he's going to be cast out faster than he can say 'hellfire.'

So, the day after his Words appear, he finds a leather cuff that fits nicely around his wrist and covers up his Words completely and doesn't take it off.

* * *

He's on the football team, anything to make that always-disappointed look in his old man's eyes go away, and when they win State for the first time in twenty-two years, he actually sees his father smile.

It's the last time he sees his father smile.

Still, he tries to cling to that moment, that one moment when Pop was actually proud of him.

It lasts until he publishes his first paper on pre-Columbian cave paintings, and he begins his twenty-year lying streak of being someone else for the sake of his own sanity.

* * *

One day, out of the blue, he decides to look beneath his bracelets at his Words; he's avoided looking at them for so long, just so nobody will ask.

 _Zeke_ is gone, and now there's _Thief,_ which worries him.

 _Prodigy_ has become _Lost,_ which outright scares him.

He wishes he could go find them, maybe keep Zeke from stealing, maybe find the Prodigy.

He doesn't though – he's too much of a damn coward.

* * *

Jacob thinks that perhaps the Library will be his savior, the catalyst to finally let him shed all the lies and finally trust people again.

When he meets Cassandra Cillian, he thinks she's too trusting, too willing to see the good in people instead of watching out for the bad.

When he meets Ezekiel Jones, he thinks he's a damn pain in the ass, a cocky little smartass with absolutely no brain-to-mouth filter.

Cassandra betrays them, betrays _him,_ and oh, does it ever hurt.

It doesn't connect for him until far later, until after Flynn has left them; only after that stinging betrayal loses its initial bite does he see it.

Zeke is short for Ezekiel, and Cassandra is a child prodigy.

Oh, damn it.

* * *

Cassandra is no longer _Lost._ Now she's _Traitor,_ and he hates himself more than he'd have thought possible.

Ezekiel is still the _Thief._ Still isn't _Zeke,_ and he wonders when Ezekiel Jones appeared for Zeke to hide behind.

* * *

Cassandra comes back to him slowly, and he lets her in as best he knows how.

It isn't easy, he doesn't know how to _do_ this.

He wants to tell her how much she means to him, how much he trusts her and needs her, but the words stick in his throat.

He doesn't even know what the hell to say to Ezekiel anymore, other than something perhaps like, 'please don't leave us.'

 _And the sweetest of words have the bitterest taste,_ he thinks to himself.

* * *

He learns that Cassandra is free with her trust, but she is not free with her _self._ That is much harder to gain than her trust.

The tumor makes her afraid, afraid of caring so much, afraid of leaving behind someone just as broken as her.

But he earns it, bit by bit, and when he does, it is peace like he's never known _,_ to be hers in a way nobody else is.

Jacob shows her his Words for the first time, smiling when he sees that he is _Historian_ on her wrist, and she beams to see _Darlin'_ on his.

Ezekiel is still the _Thief,_ but they can both see the beginnings of _Jones_ starting to take root.

* * *

Jacob is no longer scared of himself when it comes to Ezekiel, no longer scared he'll find a way to fuck it up just like he nearly did with Cassandra.

Now he finds that he is scared _for_ Ezekiel, scared the little smartass is going to get the wrong idea in his head and try to leave them.

Cassandra places her wrist beside his so their Words line up, and she traces _Jones_ across their skin with a happy sigh.

"We won't lose him," she whispers in the dark of their bedroom, and he believes her.

* * *

They nearly do lose him, but to a freaky-ass river monster in Australia, not to anything else truly terrifying, like emotions and love and fear.

Jacob doesn't want to let go of the other man, and neither does Cassandra, it seems.

He exchanges a glance with her over Ezekiel's shoulder, and she agrees with her eyes.

They are going to make him theirs, and Jacob is not going to fuck it up this time, come hell or high water.

* * *

He hears Cassandra murmuring softly in the dark. Counting. How she can even speak after what they've done together is miraculous in its own right.

"Twenty-eight," she whispers drowsily. "It's been twenty-eight days since we started. Twenty-eight, perfect number, days of the lunar cycle, adding all consecutive numbers from one to seven. Seven colors of the rainbow, seven deadly sins, seven cardinal virtues, seven pure notes on the diatonic scale. Four sevens. Seven times four, twenty-eight…"

"We have the weirdest pillow talk," Ezekiel mumbles, slightly muffled given that his face is buried in Cassandra's hair.

Jacob chortles softly into the darkness of the room. It's weird, but it's them, and it's right.

* * *

He has two soulmates, and Jacob loves them both.

He loves Cassandra, his darlin', and he needs Cassandra's willingness to see the best in people because he lost his own a long time ago.

He loves Ezekiel, too, his pain-in-the-ass, and he needs Ezekiel's utter lack of brain-to-mouth filter because he struggles to speak honestly like that.

He doesn't say the words, but he means them nonetheless, and they love him, too.

Because sometimes, you love people in spite of their flaws, and sometimes, you love people for them.


End file.
